Studies from Center for Health Policy Have Provided New Information about Managed Care (The Effect of a Rural Workforce Intervention to Improve Oral Health of Children: Evidence From an Interrupted Time Series Study of Southeast Alaska): Managed Care

2025 OCT 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A new study on Managed Care is now available. According to news reporting originating in Los Angeles, California, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Geographic isolation, limited resources, and inadequate access to dental care have led to poor oral health for Alaska Native children. In the early 2000s, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) began training alternative oral health practitioners including primary dental health aides (PDHAs) who provide dental education and preventive procedures and dental health aid therapists (DHATs) who provide additional specific treatments.”

Financial support for this research came from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Center for Health Policy, “Most members employ DHATs but only the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) systematically employed PDHAs starting in 2008. We evaluated whether the employment of PDHAs by SEARHC was associated with changes in the delivery of oral preventive and treatment procedures at the beginning of the program. We analyzed Alaska Medicaid claims data for children ages 0-18 from 2003 to 2004 and 2008 to 2012. We compared procedure use of enrollees treated by SEARHC with remaining ANTHC members and other Medicaid dental providers. We used regression models to compare changes in the predicted rate of fluoride varnish (FV) and treatment procedures for each group before and after the employment of PDHAs at SEARHC. Significantly higher predicted rate of FVs (1.74 vs. 1.05 and 1.14) and lower rate of restorative treatment procedures (1.62 vs. 2.21 and 2.87) among SEARHC patients compared to other ANTHC patients or patients of other Medicaid providers in 2012. Findings highlighted likely benefits of employing PDHAs in the delivery of needed preventive procedures in remote areas like Alaska.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Implementation of the SEARHC model requires multiple legislative and regulatory steps to establish the scope of practice, Medicaid reimbursement, and infrastructure to recruit, train, and place practitioners.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The Effect of a Rural Workforce Intervention to Improve Oral Health of Children: Evidence From an Interrupted Time Series Study of Southeast Alaska. Journal of Public Health Dentistry, 2025. Journal of Public Health Dentistry can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Journal of Public Health Dentistry - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1752-7325)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Xiao Chen, Center for Health Policy Research, Previously at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States. Additional authors for this research include Nadereh Pourat, James Godwin and Joanne Spetz.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/jphd.70011. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher of the Journal of Public Health Dentistry can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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